Event Overview

Summarized from the USGS Event Page:
A Mw 6.9 earthquake occurred on March 10, 2014, off the coast of northern California. The earthquake occurred as the result of oblique strike slip motion on a fault approximately 80 km offshore of Eureka, California. The preliminary location places the earthquake within the Juan de Fuca plate (or Gorda subplate), which subducts beneath northern California, Oregon, and Washington at a rate of ~23 mm/yr. This location is outboard of the trench in the oceanic crust. The earthquake was widely felt along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon, particularly in the city of Eureka.

UNAVCO Response

In response to the March 10, 2014 Mw 6.8 Ferndale, California earthquake, UNAVCO downloaded high rate GPS data from a total of 214 PBO stations within 500 km of the epicenter (Figure 2). One sample-per-second (1-sps) GPS data were collected for a 6-day period (± 3 days) around the event. Five sample-per-second (5-sps) GPS data were collected for a 12-hour period (± 6 hours) around the event. These data are available from the UNAVCO ftp site.

The GAGE GPS Analysis Center Coordinator estimated coseismic offsets at stations affected by this event. Station offset files are available from UNAVCO PBO data products page. The “evt” file quantifies displacements at each station in text format while the “ps” file shows estimated displacements on a map (Figure 3). These “rapid” estimates will be replaced by “final” estimates in the coming weeks.

Figure 2. Continuous GPS stations within 500 km of the epicenter of the March 10, 2014 Mw 6.8 earthquake offshore of Eureka, California. UNAVCO downloaded high rate GPS data from a total of 214 PBO stations. One...Read more »

Figure 4. Plate Boundary Observatory station P162, the closest PBO site to the epicenter of the March 10, 2014 Mw 6.8 earthquake offshore of Eureka, California. (Photo from UNAVCO archive.)...Read more »